I discovered this new genre of music awhile ago called "crunkcore", which is, for those of you who don't know, a fusion of the crunk sub-genre of hip hop and hardcore punk. Let me say first of all that I'm not a fan of "fusion" styles in general. Not because I'm a purist but because they tend to sound forced. Now there are a lot of hip hop/rock fusion bands out these days, and although there are a few songs here and there that work, most are pretty awful.
Personally, I like both hip hop and rock. I remember when I first that a band was trying to blend the styles I thought it sounded great--until I heard it. It's one of those things that sound great on paper but are terrible when actually applied. I think the reason they're generally so crappy--and this goes for any fusion style--is that they are either a hardcore band that doesn't really listen to a lot of hip hop but tries to rap, or a hip hop band that really doesn't get hardcore. The musicians involved rarely understand both genres. And/or it is just tacked on--this is what happens with a lost of your new age/world music artists. Take Yanni. He gets all these different great musicians of varying styles and puts them together to form...the exact same song every time. All that he's doing is adding on a new instrument--nothing else has changed. The scales are the same, the rhythms are the same--now matter what the instrumentation the result is the same bland yet over-emotional style.
This brings me back to crunkcore. What it essentially is is crunk beats with someone screaming the lyrics rather than rapping--even the subject matter is the same, if anything more juvenile (not to say that all crunk lyrics are juvenile though). They are a bunch of kids who don't seem to understand hip hop trying to do hip hop. Or least I think that's what they are trying to do. I'm not even sure. I'm not even sure if they are sure.
Let me try to illustrate how terrible this music is. You know when you hear a bad song or movie that is so bad that it is somehow good? Ed Wood is a great example of this. Well crunkcore goes beyond this. There are not words in English, or any other language, that can describe how terrible it is. It goes off the scale of good and bad. It's kind of Zen in a way. It transcends the categories we use to judge things. I wonder... if I listen to it long enough, will I attain satori?
It really is fascinating though. No matter how much I complain I find myself back on YouTube searching for crunkcore again. Is it a joke? Do they really have fans? Are those fans zen monks? I suspect that these questions have no answer...
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Gay Marriage!
Everyone's favorite topic! I saw something interesting on the topic and thought it was interesting - so I'm writing about it. I can't remember if it was a priest or pastor, but I saw an interview of this guy discussing gay marriage and Christianity.
My own view is that there is nothing about homosexuality that is incompatible with Christianity. You hear a lot of fundamentalists who say at best that it's a sin and at worst 'God hates fags' but actually there is only one line in the Hebrew scriptures that specifically talks about homosexuality as a sin - which is (if I remember correctly) the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Other passages are pretty vague and I don't believe Jesus said anything on the subject. But even if you look at that one passage it also says something to the effect of: you should give your daughters to guests! But you don't see many Christians advocating that. People like to pick and choose the parts of the scriptures they agree with.
But actually this has nothing really to do with what I wanted to talk about (or rather what the interviewee was talking about). He felt that marriage should be handled by the state and not the church. The state should not be able to tell a church how to handle marriages - and religion should have no say in what constitutes a valid marriage. This would protect both freedom to marry who you want and the beliefs of certain churches. Although I may not agree with them, a religion does have the right to declare whatever they want as a sin.
Japan has a good system actually (although only members of the opposite sex). To get married all you need to do is sign the marriage certificate with a witness present. Simple, and no religion involved.
My own view is that there is nothing about homosexuality that is incompatible with Christianity. You hear a lot of fundamentalists who say at best that it's a sin and at worst 'God hates fags' but actually there is only one line in the Hebrew scriptures that specifically talks about homosexuality as a sin - which is (if I remember correctly) the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Other passages are pretty vague and I don't believe Jesus said anything on the subject. But even if you look at that one passage it also says something to the effect of: you should give your daughters to guests! But you don't see many Christians advocating that. People like to pick and choose the parts of the scriptures they agree with.
But actually this has nothing really to do with what I wanted to talk about (or rather what the interviewee was talking about). He felt that marriage should be handled by the state and not the church. The state should not be able to tell a church how to handle marriages - and religion should have no say in what constitutes a valid marriage. This would protect both freedom to marry who you want and the beliefs of certain churches. Although I may not agree with them, a religion does have the right to declare whatever they want as a sin.
Japan has a good system actually (although only members of the opposite sex). To get married all you need to do is sign the marriage certificate with a witness present. Simple, and no religion involved.
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